St. Augustine Distillery announced today it is a founding sponsor of the inaugural Fort Mose Jazz and Blues Series, which is designed to raise funds for the reconstruction of the first legally sanctioned Black settlement in America.
“Supporting arts culture and local history has been central to our mission since opening in 2013,” said St. Augustine Distillery CEO Philip McDaniel. “We are excited to support and promote this live music series, while bringing the incredible Fort Mose story to a wider audience.” The Distillery is partially Black–owned.
As early as late 1600s, freedom seekers escaped enslavement in the English colonies to the north and made their way to St. Augustine, then in Spanish Florida (an early
underground railroad South). Under a Spanish royal decree, they were given freedom in exchange for adopting Catholicism and males serving in the militia.
In 1738, the Spanish governor ordered Fort Mose to be constructed to house an estimated 100 predominately Africans who sought sanctuary and liberation. In 1994, the Fort Mose site
was designated as a National Historic Landmark. After extensive archaeology and historical research, the site authenticated and today a small museum sits near the location in Fort Mose State Park.
Performing this week at the Park is two–time Grammy Award–winning jazz artist Gregory Porter (Feb. 24); New Orleans’ deep–groove R&B and jazz group Tank and the Bangas (Feb. 25); and the legendary Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (Feb. 26).
In a floor statement for Black History Month, Congressman John Rutherford (R.-Fla.) said, “Fort Mose embodies the fight for freedom by Black Americans in the early days of our country, and it highlights a piece of Black history that is dramatically different from the more familiar story of slavery and oppression.”